Take That Apple! Android to Control the Market for the Next Four Years

Apple shmapple. According to IDC via their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android is projected to control approximately 68.3% of the market at the end of this year. Not only that, Android is expected to retain control of the market for at least the next four years.

Take that Mr. Timothy D. Cook!

IDC predicts that, in 2016, Android will control 63.8% of the market, which is slightly lower than what’s expected for this year, yet still much greater in margin. It is much greater indeed, especially considering IDC predicts that Apple will only take about 19.1% of the market in 2016.

Feast your eyes on this, baby!

Oh, that’s beautiful! Well, not the actual chart because that’s kind of boring, but the stats; the stats are beautiful.

IDC also says that Android will “be the clear leader in the smartphone mobile operating system race.” Not so fast though, there’s a reason that Android is expected to control most of the market, I mean other than the simple fact that the platform is awesome, of course. Android is expected to remain leader simply because of the fact that there are so many top Android venders, including Samsung, LG, and Sony.

Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone group says that even though Android is expected to preserve the lead, anything can happen.

“Underpinning the worldwide smartphone market is a constantly shifting mobile operating system landscape. Android is expected to stay in front, but we also expect it to be the biggest target for competing operating systems to grab market share. At the same time, Windows Phone stands to gain the most market share as its smartphone and carrier partners have gained valuable experience in selling the differentiated experience Windows Phone has to offer. What bears close observation is how BlackBerry’s new platform, BlackBerry 10, and multiple versions of Linux will affect the market once the devices running these systems are available.”

Interestingly enough, the Windows Phone platform is expected to see a significant rise in support over the next few years, with a projected growth of about 2.6% in 2012, to 11.4% in 2016. Essentially, this prediction confirms what everyone has been saying for a while now which is, Windows Phone looks to be one of the next up and coming contenders in the market.

Android, Apple and Windows Phone are clearly going to duke it out over the next decade.

Despite these rather prominent numbers, the global mobile phone market is only expected to have grown a total of 1.4% by year’s end. The lower growth rate has been attributed to “sluggish economic conditions worldwide,” according to Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst at IDC.

The total sales may be down for the year, but IDC has also projected a record number of smartphone shipments during the holiday season. This is probably due to the release of highly desired models arriving close to the end of the year, like Samsung, LG, Sony and even Apple with their new iPhone 5.

It’s encouraging to see Android at the top of the list, especially in a world where we seem to be surrounded by so many iSheep. They blindly follow where Apple has always gone before, or something like that.